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Simply Running Trains

This week’s post is simply about the pleasure of running trains. As well as public shows, when we take our layout around the country to exhibitions, we also try to meet up about once a month in the local village hall. These ‘Running Meets’ are used to set up parts of the layout to fix any issues, work on any problematic areas, and test new stuff. But once that’s done, we use the rest of the day to run trains.

This weekend we were testing some modifications we have made to our yards so the only scenic section was ‘Solent Summit Station’. This gave us a layout in the shape of a bowtie. Although our yards can store up to 238′ of trains each there is still only one track in and out. This is because our layout is based on the one track system with a single track mainline and passing places.

Recently I have been trying to find ways to take better videos with my camera phone. So I have invested in a tripod and phone mount hoping this well at least alleviate the wobble. So needless to say I took a lot of video over the weekend and I want to share some of that with you.

To start with I finally got round to repainting and weathering up my Model Power 4-4-0 as Yosemite Valley Railroad no 22, well Steve at Model Railway Solutions did, as he is much better at weathering than me!

The log cars are unique to the Yosemite Valley Railway and were used on their 88% incline to bring huge logs down from the mountain. These cars are 3D printed and you can find them and more about them here.

No 22 still has some paint on the wheels to clean off but she did okay hauling a short train around the layout as you can see in the video below, which, if you click on the link will take you to Videscape where I’m now housing all my videos.

Not to be outdone the UP diesel department sent through a long freight headed by five EMD locos. A GP35 upfront followed by a GP7, two GP20 and a massive DD35. The DD35 is also 3D printed and you can find out about it here and by searching this site for DD35.

Santa Fe was also spotted rumbling through town with a train of brand new Cat excavator equipment. The three SD40-2 have all been weathered by MRS; the lead loco, painted in the proposed colors for the failed merger between Southern Pacific and Santa Fe, could do with a good clean.

And that is just about it for this week. It’s always a good weekend when there’s no issues to fix and you get to simply run trains.

Next week is the NMRA (BR) annual convention and I will be there. This year it’s taking place at the The Best Western Plus Manor NRC Birmingham Hotel, Meriden. And as usual I will be there from Friday to Sunday. This year we are not taking a big layout, just a few modules to form a switching layout. If you are coming to the convention please come by and say hello.